Clashes between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces and the Iran-aligned Houthi rebel movement have killed more than 60 people, including civilians, as the Houthis advanced a military offensive on Yemen’s western coast. Twenty-six government troops and 31 Houthi fighters were killed during several hours of fighting in the country’s southwest on Saturday, medical and military sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP). A missile attack also killed six civilians and injured seven others traveling by bus in the city of Taiz. The killings were the latest in a series of bloody clashes in recent days as the Houthis continued an offensive in western Taiz and southern Hodeidah along the Red Sea coast. On Friday, 129 people were killed in fighting between rebel and government forces, according to an AFP tally. The fighting is one of the deadliest in years, following the collapse of the 2022 ceasefire in July. The truce broke after an Iranian plane attempted to land in Houthi-controlled Sanaa, prompting Yemeni government attacks on the airport. The Houthis are trying to push back government troops to capture strategic hills overlooking Bab al-Mandeb to advance towards coastal port cities. So far, they have managed to capture areas in western Taiz. In Taiz, a government military official said that “the next few hours will be decisive,” as the Houthis had taken up positions near the city a day earlier. They added that reinforcements had been arriving from Aden to try to stop the Houthi advance. On Friday, government forces said they had recaptured the al-Khazan and al-Makahna hills west of Taiz, two strategically important areas to control the region. The Houthis had previously controlled the port city of al-Makha overlooking Bab al-Mandeb, before being driven out by government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition. The Bab al-Mandeb Strait is a crucial maritime chokepoint for ships heading to the Suez Canal. About 10% of world maritime trade passes through the strait. Saudi Arabia has been using the strait to export oil for months after the start of the US-Iran war. If shipping is disrupted at Bab al-Mandeb, it will only further increase the cost of global goods, which has already skyrocketed as a result of the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz since March 2026. If the Houthis manage to recapture the port city and seize key areas along the Red Sea coast, it will help them control naval traffic in the Red Sea. In July, the Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia and have repeatedly disrupted traffic in solidarity with Gaza since the start of the war there in October 2023. Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014, when the Houthis and allied forces seized the capital city of Sanaa and ousted the then-government from power. A Saudi-led coalition then began a military intervention to support the Yemeni government and fight the Houthis, a strategic ally of Iran. At least 150,000 people in Yemen have died in the fighting, and hundreds of thousands more have died from related causes such as hunger and disease. According to the UN, around 4.5 million people have been displaced by the fighting and more than 18.2 million are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
